Dr Georgios Samaras
Assistant Professor of Public Policy
School for Government
The Policy Institute
georgios.samaras (a) kcl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 7325
40 Aldwych
Bush House - North East Wing
King’s College London
Room 8.09
WC2B 4BG
Instagram / LinkedIn Publications
Samaras, G. (2025). Weaponising
Religion in Greece Post Economic Crisis: An Analysis of Far-Right Political
Discourse from 2019 to 2024. Journal of Empirical Theology,
38 (1). DOI: 10.1163/15709256-20240018
Samaras, G. (2025). Decoding the
Symbolic Storm Fuelling Greek Far-Right Politics: a Visual Essay. Visual Studies, 40 (2). DOI: 10.1080/1472586X.2025.2483230
Samaras, G. (2025). Hide and
Seek: Extreme-Right Leadership and Communication Tactics Behind Bars in Greece. Distinktion: Journal of Social
Theory, 26 (2). DOI:
10.1080/1600910X.2025.2487790
Samaras, G. (2025). Demokratia
dismantled. Index on Censorship, 54
(1). DOI:
10.1177/03064220251332621
Samaras, G. (2025). Battleground
Europe: The Rise of Anti-Woke Movements and Their Threat to Democratic Values. Frontiers in Political Science, 7. DOI: 10.3389/fpos.2025.1568816
Samaras, G. (2025). Masculinity
Under Pressure: Economic Crisis and the Radicalisation of Greek Far‐Right
Voters. Social Sciences & Humanities
Open Pre-Prints. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.5219765
Samaras, G. (2026). New Methodological Frontiers in Interviewing Hard-to-Reach Voters. In L. Hubbard (Ed.), Researching Hate. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming.
Book
Samaras, G. (2025). Who Rules
the Land of Denial? Book Project
under contract with Palgrave Macmillan and Springer Nature. New Perspectives on South-East Europe Series. Forthcoming.
Working Papers
The Digital Ethnonation: Multimodal Extreme-Right
Propaganda and National Identity on YouTube.Working Paper. Under Review in Mediterranean Politics - available upon request.
This article examines how the Greek extreme-right party
Golden Dawn harnessed YouTube to promote nationalist propaganda through
multimodal strategies encompassing text, imagery, and audio. By blending
long-standing nationalist narratives with the distinctive affordances of
digital platforms, Golden Dawn’s video content reflects the resilience and
adaptability of extreme-right movements operating within contemporary media
ecologies
Ten Years After Syriza's Victory - The Rise,
Reign, and Ruin of Greece’s Left. Working Paper. Under Review in Journal of Political Ideologies - available upon request.
The paper outlines the rise and fall of
SYRIZA, the left-wing political party in Greece. Initially propelled to power
in 2015 on an anti-austerity platform, the party’s ascent reflected public
discontent with neoliberal policies. However, SYRIZA’s subsequent compromises,
including agreeing to austerity measures it once opposed, led to its political
marginalisation and decline by 2024.
A Visual Narrative of German Memory,
Youth, and the Far‐Right. Working Paper. Under
Review in Language and Communication - available upon request.
This visual essay explores how far‐right visual campaigns
reshape collective memory and national identity in contemporary Germany.
Through photographic fieldwork in Munich and Karlsruhe, the study examines the
visual rhetoric of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) campaign, highlighting themes
of reclaimed freedom, leadership, and remigration.
Derailing Truth: Tripartite Discourse and Public Outrage
over Greece’s Tempe Valley Disaster. Working Paper. Under
Review in Journal of Contingencies and Crisis
Management - available upon request.
This article examines the Greek government’s evolving
narrative through three distinct phases: an initial acknowledgment of the
disaster’s gravity, a subsequent campaign to minimize its severity, and
eventual attempts to distort public outrage and shift blame. Employing Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study scrutinizes 150 official statements,
interviews, and social media posts by government officials and ruling party
legislators.
Misuse, Mislabelling, and the Broken Path of the
“Hard-Right.” Working Paper. Under Review in European Political Science - available upon request.
The paper critically examines how media outlets use the
term “hard‐right” to categorise far‐right political movements, arguing that
this buzzword is ambiguously defined and misapplied, which obscures important
ideological distinctions. By analysing 140 articles from prominent
English-speaking media using a Strategic Narrative framework, the study
demonstrates that such imprecise labelling can distort public understanding and
undermine democratic accountability.
Elon Musk, Far-right Conspiracy Theories, and Memes in
the 2024 US Presidential Election: a Visual Essay. Working Paper. Under Consideration in Journal of Visual Culture - available upon request.
Could
a single meme significantly reshape political discussion? This essay argues
that under Elon Musk’s X ownership, memes and AI-generated imagery act as
“viral affordances” that normalise extremist narratives widely.
By combining digital media studies, conspiracy research and
platform governance theory, this essay advances understanding of online
propaganda in the multimodal age.
Woke Weaponry and the Culture-War Playbooks of the European Conservatives and Reformists, and Patriots for Europe. Working Paper w/ Billy Tsagkronis.
Framed as a political weapon, “woke” discourse by Patriots for Europe harnesses moral panic to undermine EU policies on LGBTQ+ rights, migration and climate, while the ECR deploys subtler critiques to advance fiscal sovereignty, digital censorship and tighter borders. A concise, comparative thematic analysis of MEP speeches and social-media posts reveals how both groups recast nuanced policy debates as binary struggles between a putative majority and an alleged ideological elite.
Book Reviews
Samaras, G. (2024). The
Politics of Memory in the Italian Populist Radical Right. LSE Review of Books.
Samaras, G. (2023). Populism
in Power: Discourse and Performativity in SYRIZA and Donald Trump. LSE Review of Books.
Samaras, G. (2023). The culture
of democracy–a sociological approach to civil society: edited by Bin Xu, Cambridge, Polity, 2022. Democratization. ISBN
1509543988. DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2022.2142209
Samaras, G. (2023). The Capitol
Riots. Digital Media, Disinformation, and Democracy Under Attack. International Journal of
Press-Politics. DOI:
10.1177/19401612231172315
Samaras, G. (2022). Rise
of the Extreme Right: A Lowy Institute Paper:edited by Lydia Khalil, Melbourne, Penguin, 2022, ISBN 1761046357. Politics, Religion & Ideology. DOI: 10.1080/21567689.2022.2146283
Other Publications and Policy Commentary
Aspiring European Imitators of Trumpism. ETERON Institute. Link.
Greek views on gendered violence and equality: unveiling
attitudes and concerns. London School of Economics. Link.
The "curse" of "overtourism" and
extreme inequalities. ETERON Institute. Link.
Moral Panic and Greek Politics. ETERON Institute. Link.
International & European Developments Bulletin #20 |
Europe at the Polls – Where is the EU Heading? ENA Institute. Link.
Sliding Away from Unity. University of Oxford -
Department of Politics and International Relations (OxPol). Link.
Normalisation and Co-existence: extremist tendencies in
centre-right factions. ETERON Institute Papers. Link.
Party Movement and Authoritarian Tendencies in Greece.
ETERON Institute. Link.
Pamphlet No 8: First Thoughts on the 25th June 2023
Election in Greece. PSA Greek Politics. Link.
Pamphlet No 7: First Thoughts on the 21st May 2023
Election in Greece. PSA Greek Politics. Link.
The normalisation of the far-right in Greek politics.
ECPR - Illiberalism Paper Series. Link.
The Far-right in Greece and the Parliament. ENA Institute
for Alternative Policies Papers. Link.
The Greek Far-Right after Golden Dawn: what’s next? C-REX
- University of Oslo. Link.
Outlawing Golden Dawn. European Institute of
the Mediterranean Yearbook. Link.